Queen Elizabeths Gest Chamber

Although there is no evidence that Queen Elizabeth stayed in this place the rumour is that she did, hence its name.

It is an old building and the wood and plaster work is outstanding.

Invicta and the White Horse

I have never talked about Invicta and the white horse in this blog so here is a bit more...
Invicta is the motto of Kent and it means "unconquered". It is said that they use this motto because when William I conquered England Kentish men kept their lands and titles in exchange for their allegiance to William. Not a bad deal, eh?

The white horse is an old symbol for the Saxon Kingdom of Kent Kingdom. Kent County Council also uses a white horse in its logo.

Ethelbert

Today is an important day in the history of Canterbury. We are celebrating 1493 years of the death of one of the greatest - if not the greatest - kings that ever lived in this land.
Son of King Eormenric, he married Bertha the daughter of one of the King of Franks.
He was also responsible for bringing St Augustine to England therefore responsible for the introduction of Christianity in Kent.
Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of him and have it ready for today to show you so I am off to Canterbury to see if I can find something that will do justice to his greatness.

13:43 Done!

Westgate Towers

Dear readers

I must apologise to you for failing to show you one of the most important buildings of Canterbury.
The Westgate Towers is part of the wall that once surrounded Canterbury. The gate was built 1380 by Archbishop Sudbury and for many years it was a prison.

Today the towers house a museum worth visiting if you are around.

Canterbury West Gate Towers
St Peter's Street
Canterbury UK
Telephone: + 44 (0)1227 789 576

museums@canterbury.gov.uk
Open: Monday - Saturday 11.00 - 12.30 and 13.30 - 15.30.
Admission charge. Adults: £1.25, Concessions £0.75, Family Ticket £2.90

St Dunstans Church - Thomas More

I am sure most of you know who St Thomas More was but, in case you are just another ignorant moron, here is a bit more about the guy who wrote Utopia - not only wrote but he invented the word too - and one of the most important Renaissance Humanists in England.

Born in London on 07/02/1478 he became a lawyer (his father was rich) and by the age of 23 he was already a barrister - yes, the lucky bugger was clever too. In fact, he was so clever that by the tender age of 43, he became an advisor of King Henry VIII. His political career didn't stop there though: in 1523 he also became Speaker of the House of Commons, and in 1529 he was promoted to Lord Chancellor.

Unfortunately, he was also a very (I mean very) religious guy - flagelation was just one of the many things included in his daily routine (I did say he was very religious!) and after a series of political bad moves he ended up refusing to sign the Act of Supremacy which made King Henry VIII the new Super Pope.

As you can imagine, that didn't go down well with his boss and in those days, sacking the poor guy was not enough: you had to behead him too. God, don't wish you could still behead a few now? (Fred Goodwin, Madoff, Peter Cummings, to name a few).

Anyway, how does this guy end up in St Dunstan's Church in Canterbury?

Well, his daughter Margaret was married to the rich local Roper family and they managed to rescue her dad's head which after a week on a spike in London Bridge was ready to be thrown in the Thames. She brought it back with her and buried it in her Roper Vault where it aparantly still is. Don't worry, if you visit, you don't have to see it.

More was canonised in 1935 and is highly revered by the Catholic Church.

Read more about The Life of Thomas More

Theme Day: Path and Passage

St Dunstan Church - Canterbury

Today is a special day for me. I have been publishing photos of Canterbury and the neighbouring areas for one year.

I thought I would take you to a special place. Somewhere I have not taken you before. So I have brought you to St Dunstan's Church, an extremely important place in the history of Canterbury and Britain.

It was here in July, 1174, that King Henry II, came to pay his penance for the death of the Archbishop of Canterbury, St Thomas Becket. He arrived at St. Dunstan's, changed into sackcloth and ashes and walked barefeet to Becket's grave in Canterbury Cathedral where he prayed for forgiviness.

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

Queen Victoria

Queen Victoria died on this day 108 years ago after ruling Britain for 63 years and seven months.
I found this statue of Queen Vicotira and Albert the Prince Consort in Canterbury Cathedral.

Obelisk

In the Victoria times, in order to attract interest and bring more visitors to a place, merchants would often build monuments that looked old and interesting.
The obelisk you see at the back is one of such constructions. It was built over a 100 years ago by a local Canterburian merchant.

Linden Grove

Today we are in a small road just passed Westgate.
It is called Linden Grove and it is full of history.
The houses as you can guess go back a long time and in December 1987, when builders were buiding new houses (you can't see them on the photo) archaeologists recorded finding several pieces of evidence of Roman ndustrial activity in the site.

Stone Street

This is Stone Street, a road that starts in Watling Street in Canterbury going all the way to the M20.
It was originally built and paved by the Romans and as usual in Roman roads, it is very straight. The original road went from Lympne, where I live all the way to Canterbury.

Jane's Son, Edward

Once upon a time, many years ago, a lady called Jane married one of the richest men in the land and, certainly, the most powerful one: the King.

Her aristocratic parents didn't expect her to marry that well, after all she was in her late 20's and although she could read and write her own name - an achievement in those days - she was not highly educated unlike the previous Queens.

She dressed very plainly and if it wasn't for the amount of pearls she demanded her maids of honour to wear, people would think she wasn't the Queen. She didn't have many friends and the only two people who she confided were her sister-in-law and her sister. Her pale skin, blonde hair and delicate features complemented her shyness.

The King , who was obsessed with having a son, was incredibly pleased when Jane got pregnant. He took her to a beautiful palace to wait for the arrival of the baby. He was so determined that the Queen should have the best that when she craved for quails, he ordered the best, all the way from France.

On the 12th day of October 1537, Jane gave birth to a boy and the King was estatic. He finally had his heir, a male heir, to the throne. The King and the Queen named the baby Edward.

The christening was a big occasion as there had not been a christening of a male heir for over a quarter of a century. Dukes, Earls and all the nobility were invited. After a very long day - the baptism lasted for over 4 hours - Jane Seymour fell ill and twelve days later, on the 24th of October 1537, she died.

Her husband, King Henry VIII griefed for her but soon after he started looking for a new wife. Edward, her son, died before his 18th birthday.

Not a very happy story is it?

Kings Bridge in Canterbury

Walk along the old High Street in Canterbury up towards the West Gate and, when you come to the Old Weavers' House, you will find yourself standing next to the oldest working road bridge in Britain, The Kings Bridge.

The bridge was built in the 11th century and it has seen more social change than most of us can imagine.

Most of the bridge is still intact, though it has been fortified a little over the years as you can see from the picture - we are under it now!

Franciscan Gardens at Greyfriars

These is one of the most secluded and romantic places in Canterbury. Although it is still inside the City Walls, the entrance to the Franciscan Gardens is not obvious therefore most of the tourist that pours into Canterbury every weekend rarely wanders into the gardens.

Not far from this arch stands a Greyfriars Chapel an English Franciscan Friary built in 1267.

The Greyfriars Chapel and the Franciscan Garden is open from Easter to September, 2.00pm to 4.00pm Monday to Saturday. It is also open for Eucharist at 12:30 every Wednesday.
Free of Charge

Ducking Stool

The Canterbury Ducking Stool is a remnant from the Medieval times.

This is a chair that is suspended on a frame and hangs over the River Stour, next to the Old Weavers House. It was used in the middle ages as a form of retribution for three types of situations:

Firstly it was used as a punishment for nagging wives. In those enlightened times, a man could pay for his nagging wife to be dipped into the river on the ducking stool and of course suffer a degree of public humiliation at the same time. It's unclear where the payment went, but clearly not to charitable causes.

Secondly, it was used as a punishment and public embarrassment for cheating businessmen, who would be ducked into the water in front of a baying crowd and who would inevitably be forced to leave the city afterwards, their reputation in tatters.

Lastly it was most famously used as a litmus test for witches and the way it worked was this: any woman accused of being a witch would be placed in the chair, and the chair would be swung out over the river and then submerged deep in the river for 2-3 minutes. After that time, the poor woman would be brought back to the surface. Now here is the tes: if she survived this lengthy ducking then clearly she was a witch as she must have used her powers to survive the fatal dowsing. If so, she would be burned at the stake as a witch. If, however, the lady was dead after being submerged for 3 minutes, then clearly she was not a witch. Her family would receive an apology letter from the Churcha and could be given a Christian burial and have her soul recommended to God.

Though easily the best outcome, it was death either way for anyone accused of witchcraft!

Queen Elizabeth

Today I'm celebrating Queen Elizabeth I 475th birthday.

She was born on 7/09/1533 and died on 24/03/1603.
I found this statue in Canterbury Cathedral. She looks very regal and no longer young. The writing reads Elizabetha Regina

Water Tower

This picture was taken inside the Water Tower building in Canterbury Cathedral.
It was built in the 12th Century following the designs by Prior Wilbert. The water came froma cistern on the floor above and it was distributed to other parts of the monastery.
You can see what the building look like from the outside here.

Bastille Day

I found this carving in one of the walls of Dover Castle. I imagine it was carved by one of the royalists/aristocrats who escaped the French Revolution.

It was certainly written by someone literate who had excellent hand writing.

PS Coltrane, one of the smartest guys I know, has found out more about the guy who engraved the sntone. Read the comments to find out more.

Sunny day

Today I took my Uncle Zezinho and Aunt Tereza to leeds Castle and they adored it.

This is what the place looked like at midday.

Telephone Box

I found this phone box in Fordwich.

Here are some facts about the red telephone box:

1. According to Ofcom "there are 67,000 phone boxes in the UK".


2. The original idea came fram a design called K1 and later it was redesigned by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott mid 1920's.


3. They painted it red to make it more visible but a lot of people hated it so much that some areas such as conservation areas, painted their phone boxes in less conspicuous colours. They have now re-painted it in red - to keep within the traditional style!


4. BT, looks after most phone boxes in the UK (64,500) and they say the average annual running costs per phone box are £1,673 and around 42 per cent of its phone boxes are profitable.
   
5. For photos and more history of phonebox visit http://heritage.elettra.co.uk/phonebox/variants.html


6. Do you want to buy a phone box? Where to buy one

Canterbury Tales

If you speak Englsih well and enjoy history this is a fun place to visit. To find out more visit http://www.canterburytales.org.uk/home.htm